windows first decided I no longer needed internet access then it decided I didnt need to be able to boot up either. so I decided I needed a reformat, backed everything up to my 2nd drive, then reformatted. windows retaliated by installing to the wrong drive (no, seriously, it wasnt my stupidity, windows called that drive c drive and insisted it was a system disk) and I didnt realise until I had formated over 300 gbs of data.

yep, 2 years of photos. and my passwords database.

after three more attempts to get windows to stop screwing up and behave, my husband popped in an ubuntu live cd and said to just LOOK at it. after dealing with 3 formats and 2 hours' worth of looking for drivers for windows, the fact ubuntu was up, running, and completely connected in less and 2 minutes on a live cd, running in memory....well, I hit the lil install button and I am now officially a linux user.